Hello everybody.
Don't worry, today's episode is not cancelled.
I am just jumping on to say this Friday is Black Friday and, like all other businesses, I've decided to offer a discount for students online.
So if you would like a 15 discount on any of our writing packages, so that's the bronze, the silver, the gold and yes, even the platinum.
You can go to our website and use the code BLACK15.
So that's B-L-A-C-K-1-5, and you will be able to get this week only a 15 discount off on all our courses.
Usually we only offer 10%.
I've decided to go big this year.
It's a 15% discount.
So if you would like to come and study with Nick and I, you can take full advantage of our video courses.
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Then use Black 15 this Friday or for the next seven days.
All right, let's start the episode.
Welcome to My IELTS Classroom, the podcast where two English experts talk all things IELTS.
I'm Shelley Cornick.
And I'm Nick Long.
And today we are looking at some new IELTS speaking topics from 2022.
What are some of the latest IELTS Speaking Part 2 topics?
What makes them tricky and how would Nick and I approach them?
Good evening, Nick.
Good evening.
How are you?
I'm doing alright, thank you very much.
A bit tired, been a bit busy the last couple of weeks.
You have been a very busy boy.
Yeah.
Well, I'm happy to report that I am feeling much better after my sickness last week.
And miraculously, I still don't understand how this is possible.
It was not COVID.
So I am the only person I now know who has never had COVID.
I think I must be.
The mystery bug.
Maybe they should take some of my blood, Nick, and see why I'm so special.
But yeah, it was a pretty rough week anyway.
So I'm really sorry, everyone, if you came to listen last week, but I hope that you found...
The episode on listening part three, useful anyway.
What have you been doing, Nick, over the last couple of weeks?
Anything good?
Not really, to be honest.
Lots of working, lots of cleaning cooking, looking after my girlfriend who's currently unable to walk after an operation.
I know.
It's been a very stressful couple of weeks.
I have to say, I was back at the hospital this morning, this time for a problem with my hips.
And every time I go to the hospital I just think, I look around and I think God, I wonder.
I always think is there any of our ex-students working in the hospital?
Because I see so many doctors from international backgrounds and it always makes me feel quite proud that we have helped our NHS grow.
But yes, not this morning though.
Nick went there because I had an MRI a few weeks ago.
No results from the MRI.
So just had to come back home and wait a bit longer.
Anyway, talking of waiting, before we start today's lesson, I just thought I'd pass on a little bit of news.
Bit of a curiosity, I guess, really, Nick.
I got an email from one of our students last week which let me know that all tests, all tests in Vietnam.
All IELTS tests have been postponed for the foreseeable future.
So if you are listening to us from Vietnam, you may not know this.
I'm sorry to break that news to you.
I think all tests finished after last weekend.
The interesting thing, though, Nick, is that it's not just IELTS tests that have been postponed.
Is that all Cambridge exams?
Well, it's not even Cambridge exams.
It's all international language testing exams, which would include also, you know, there are certain There's an equivalent IELTS test for Chinese, for example.
So if you want to, you know, test your level of Chinese, that's been postponed.
Wow.
Any test...
That is an English proficiency test has been postponed and no reason has been given.
Our student was speculating that it might be that there's been some type of corruption, because apparently you need to have an IELTS test to attend a local university in Vietnam.
Wow.
But I'm not sure.
So that's just something I just wanted to inform everybody about.
We like to make sure that we are on top of the latest IELTS news.
I also saw a Facebook post that said that the new IELTS one skill retake, which we discussed a couple of weeks ago.
Yep. is going to roll out in India, but I can't find any information about that online.
So if anybody is listening from India which is, you know, we've got a lot of students from that part of the world.
Who has got an official source for that information, please email it to me at hello at my IELTS classroom dot com so that we can confirm.
And finally, going back to a recent episode where I asked anybody listening if they knew if the order of the tests had changed in all countries or only India, we got an email from a lovely student.
I'm trying to remember her name.
I think it might have been Luda.
But it was a student who was in, I think Russia, who said that, in the Eastern Bloc.
So I'm guessing Nick, sort of like, where you are, Riga and all of those countries.
The order of the test is still listening reading, writing.
Interesting.
So it hasn't changed.
But again, if you've got any information, if you know, if you have sat the test recently and you started with writing, please email us.
Tell us where you sat that test so that we can, you know, feed back to everybody else.
But yes, that's just a little bit of IELTS.
You could call that IELTS gossip, Nick.
To start the show.
But that's not what we're doing today, as much as I like gossip.
What I thought we would do today is we would look at some reported topics from the current speaking, part two.
Ooh.
And in particular, topics which I personally have not seen used before in Speaking Part 2.
You know, a lot of them repeat, don't they?
Again and again and again.
The wording changes slightly, but the actual topic doesn't change.
But these are things which I do think are totally new.
So maybe before we actually look at those topics because we haven't had a speaking lesson for ages, have we?
No, we haven't.
Yeah, you're right.
We might start with just a very, very quick review of part two of the speaking exam.
And we'll do that in the form of a little quiz.
So if you're listening at home, I'm going to ask Nick a series of questions.
But you don't have to wait for Nick to answer the questions.
You could try to answer them before him.
All right.
So we're testing your knowledge, really not Nick's, because Nick has got a perfect knowledge of the speaking exam.
Probably even better than me, I think, at this stage.
All right, Nick, so...
How long does the second part of the IELTS speaking test last in total?
Between three and four minutes.
Very good.
So, inside that three to four minutes, the student is given a cue card which will give them a topic that they need to speak about.
Mm-hmm.
But before they speak, they are given some time to make notes.
How long do they have to make notes?
One minute.
That's well done.
I hope you got that right at home.
Once the one minute has finished, the examiner gives an instruction.
How long does the examiner ask you to speak for?
Between one to two minutes.
Exactly.
So that is the instruction, isn't it?
Now I'm going to give you a topic and I'd like you to talk for one to two minutes.
However, how long should the students really aim to speak for in section two?
Hopefully they will speak for the full two minutes.
Exactly.
Right.
So if at the end of the two minutes the student hasn't finished speaking so the examiner has to interrupt them to say your time's up.
Is that a problem?
No, not really.
Yeah.
And does the student have to answer or cover all of the bullet points inside the two minutes?
Well, the student definitely shouldn't be answering the bullet points.
They're not questions to answer.
And no, they don't have to cover all the bullet points.
They just have to cover the main topics.
Exactly.
So, I mean, I think that's the thing that surprises a lot of students if you're new.
The bullet points are really there to support you in speaking.
Okay.
So they're great ways of like giving you ideas or things to talk about, but you don't actually have to cover all of the bullets, although nick you, i think, give some good advice about this, because i think remind them, remind the listeners, what you often say about covering the topic, because i mean, I think you do want to make sure that you at least cover the main topic.
That's right.
Yeah.
So I would say don't go too long on the background information.
If you're doing a past question, for example.
You don't want to spend two minutes talking about your backgrounds and then not even cover the topic.
That's bad.
We don't want that.
Whenever I'm doing practicing with students, I just don't give them the bullet points.
I tell them to try and think themselves what they can talk about, because the bullet points are very tempting.
You look at them and you think, oh, I can just talk about this.
And then you realize after 30 seconds you've talked about everything and you have nothing left to say.
Yes.
Yeah.
So I completely agree.
I think students who focus on the bullets.
They look at them like a checklist and they're trying to work through that checklist quickly.
And then it ends and there's still another minute left.
Exactly.
Yeah.
I think that's a great tip.
Definitely, I would recommend practicing without the bullet points, because that is going to encourage you to make a story, isn't it?
Yes, it is.
And to speak more naturally.
So, as we just said, it's absolutely fine and actually probably a good thing if the examiner interrupts you, right?
I would say, you know, as long as you've discussed the main topic...
If the examiner interrupts you, that's a signal that you've probably done a good job.
Well, a good job in terms of your fluency, right?
You may have made lots of grammar mistakes and vocabulary mistakes.
Just speaking for two minutes does not guarantee you a high score, which is something I've seen a lot on Facebook, when students will say things like I can't believe I only got five.
I did everything right.
I spoke for two minutes.
Right, we're still looking at the quality of your language, aren't we?
But for a high fluency score, definitely try to talk for two minutes.
Can the examiner ever stop you before your two minutes have finished?
No, that will never happen.
No.
So, you know, if you, you know, I would say...
If you think that has happened to you, probably what's really happened is that time does strange things in exam rooms, right?
When you're full of adrenaline and panic, two minutes can feel like 20 seconds.
So I am 99.9% sure that is what has happened.
However, if you really strongly believe the examiner did interrupt you before two minutes, that would actually make your test invalid and you would be able to get some sort of refund or sit the test again.
So if you do think that has happened...
Go to the test administrator at the end of the lesson and say, I would like to make a complaint.
I don't think I was given two minutes to speak.
The key thing is you have to do it.
On the day at the test center, the minute you leave, it is now too late to make a complaint.
So if you really do think that's what's happened, it's not going to affect your score in a negative way.
Just go and say that's what you think has happened and the administrator will check.
Yeah.
Another common thing is is once you finish speaking, you may see the examiner write something on a piece of paper.
At the end of part two.
Is the examiner writing down your score, Nick?
They are not writing down your score at all, no.
No.
And you shouldn't try and look at it either.
No.
What is the examiner doing when they write on a piece of paper?
Probably writing down the time.
Exactly, right?
As I've just said, the timing of each section is actually very strict and examiners must keep within specific time limits.
So as different students speak for different lengths of time in part one and then they might speak for different lengths of time in part two, you know Each test takes varies by a few seconds.
So the examiner has to keep writing down what time you finished each section and what time you started each section so they can make sure you don't speak for too long.
That's what they are writing down.
So really, please don't, at the end of your two minutes, start to try and look at what the examiner is doing, because you're just putting your energy and effort into the wrong place.
I would say
So you are hopefully going to talk for two minutes.
Once the two minutes are up, the examiner will say thank you.
They may then ask you a follow-up question.
What are the follow-up questions, Nick?
What do they usually sound like?
They're very sort of simple, straightforward questions just to elicit a bit more information, I guess, aren't they?
Extra sort of simple details.
Exactly.
I mean, will every student get a follow-up question?
No, no.
It's not always, they're not always used.
Yeah.
So I would say if you've spoken for the two minutes and you spoke for five minutes in section one, it may be the examiner will say thank you and then move directly to part three.
You know, so now I'm going to ask you some more general questions, blah, blah, blah.
You know, if it is a simple question or if maybe, more importantly, if you didn't quite manage to make it to two minutes if you spoke for one minute 45, for example the examiner might ask you a follow up question.
This short follow up question
So how long should the student spend answering that?
I don't think I think a sentence is enough.
You don't want to start going into more detail.
So you know, if the part two topic was describe a cafe that you like going to, the follow up question might be do your friends go to that cafe?
And then your answer would be simply, yes, most of my friends go to the cafe.
Oh, no, not really, because it's near where I work.
That's the type of length, you know, if you've spoken for two minutes, that's all you need to say.
The examiner will then say thank you.
They'll take back the paper and pencil if you're doing it face to face, and then you'll move on to part three.
Good.
They are the basic facts then about part two.
Hopefully most of our listeners already know those.
We have done two or three previous episodes that only focused on part two.
We have.
Where we've given general advice.
But if you had to give sort of like one main piece of advice or, like you know, the best possible advice for part two Nick, what would your one main piece of advice be?
Um, my main piece of advice would be to think about two things that you can talk about, rather than just one, so that if you do run out of time or if you do sorry, if you do run out of things to say before the two minutes is over, you can switch to a second story.
So if the what would an example of that be?
Well, if the question is something like um, describe a time when you lost something yeah yeah, you can talk about the thing you want to talk about and then, if you still have a few seconds left or longer, you can say oh actually, another thing i lost was and you can start talking again.
So you might talk about a time you lost a wallet, and then you could say oh, and I also lost a tennis racket once.
And you could start telling them how you lost your tennis racket.
Idiot.
Who would lose a tennis racket?
Yeah.
Yeah, brilliant.
I mean, that is, I think, is always my favourite hack.
You're definitely not penalised for doing that.
And I think the great thing about going to a second item is that it just gives you a whole new bank, doesn't it?
A whole new bank of vocabulary, a whole new story.
You're not just scrabbling around.
My advice then, would be so that you don't need a second item, so that you can keep talking, if you can, for two minutes about one item is add details to your story.
I'm going to call it right.
So you remember, the examiner doesn't know you.
They don't know who you are, why you would do something.
You know, a lot of students will sort of start telling me a story and they'll jump in for what feels to me like the middle of the story rather than I'm like well, who is this person you're meeting?
Why are you meeting them?
Why are you in this town?
Um, Think of it like giving a story, and good stories have details, right.
They really, you know, provide everything so that the listener doesn't have to think or guess.
But again, for some topics, even with details, you're not going to make it to two minutes.
That's where Nick's emergency second item definitely comes in handy.
Okay.
So, you know, they are our main pieces of advice.
If you would like more advice, go to our blog, blog.myioxclassroom.com.
Speak on, speak on?
No, click on the speaking tab.
And have a look.
Go back through.
We did a great episode about how to talk, for example, about object cue cards, right?
Cue cards that ask you to describe an object.
That's a great one to go back to if you're new.
But we've got lots of other part two episodes.
That's not really what we're doing today, though.
Today...
We're going to be looking at some new topics and just trying to break them down.
And we may even, if we can, if I can stop coughing for long enough give a sample for a couple of these at the end.
So that's something to look forward to.
So the first, now we don't have the bullets.
Mostly because, as Nick said before, I don't actually use bullets in my lessons with my students.
Right.
So we've only got the main topic.
So the first main topic we've got is ask you to describe a time someone asked for your opinion.
Now, I've never seen this topic before.
Mm hmm.
I think it could be a tricky question for some students because it's extremely vague.
It is actually, isn't it?
Yes, extremely.
See, I've noticed that students often do well when they are asked a very specific question.
So, you know, describe a time when you were late for a meeting, right?
People can tend to do that.
Yeah.
It is extremely open ended which, if you haven't practiced a lot, could just you know.
There's nothing really here for your brain to grab hold to, is there?
Right.
If it says, you know, describe a sport you once played.
At least your brain can go to sports and start thinking football hockey, tennis.
Here, an opinion can mean anything.
But although on the one hand that can make it difficult, I actually think that that is the key, or what actually makes this question quite good, because I would say, any time you have a vague question, it gives you the opportunity to bring that question back To something that you know very well.
Mm-hmm about their life, or in part one, they'll be telling me, and then i start to understand what that person's hobbies are, what they do for work um, and it always surprises me that i'll give the student a question And I think oh, I know.
Well, this is a perfect question for the student because they told me last week that they do yoga.
And now this question is asking, you know, talk about something you learned to do as an adult.
Mm hmm.
And then they'll choose something... Really obscure.
Completely obscure.
They're not able to talk for two minutes.
And when they finish, I'll just say, why didn't you talk about yoga?
And they'll say, oh, I didn't think about that.
So I would say for me, for any vague question, try to bring the question back to something you talk about a lot and so you could talk about with confidence.
So what type of things do people are people are most students able to talk about quite confidently?
I think anybody could talk about work or study Absolutely.
Right.
So for this question, a time someone asked for your opinion, could you bring that back to work?
You know, we work with a lot of doctors, right?
Perfect.
Maybe another doctor wanted a second opinion on a patient.
We work with IT specialists.
A lot of IT is about problem solving, isn't it?
So maybe a colleague got stuck with a particular programming problem.
I don't work in programming.
I don't know.
So, mate, but you will.
But the idea is if you talk about work, you're going to have the vocabulary.
Yes, you are.
That's right.
Yeah.
And, you know, in a way...
That's what makes this question quite weak, because really what you don't really want students talking too much about their profession in the arts exam because we know that their vocabulary is going to be stronger.
But you can in part two, that is a valid answer.
So, yeah.
So maybe again, if you're studying an opinion about how to complete a particular essay or how to do a presentation,
Yes, a presentation.
Or if you're one of those students who's lucky enough to work in the science, the sciences, and you get to do some sort of experiment.
Right.
Like how are you going to do an experiment?
That would be perfect for this question.
I would also say a hobby.
Mm hmm.
We get a lot of students who you know will come out at some point.
You know you've worked with them for three weeks and then they'll tell you oh actually, I'm like the judo champion of Moldova.
So if you've got a hobby like or a specific interest, do you play the guitar?
Do you cook?
Do you play a sport?
You know you could.
Maybe nobody has actually asked you your opinion, but you could easily think of a situation, couldn't you?
Where somebody would ask you advice, you know, someone's taking up your sport for the first time.
So I would say for that question.
I think the difficulty is you're not going to get immediate ideas from the question itself because there are no key words.
But if you try and think, how can you apply that question to your own life, I think it should be relatively easy.
Yeah, that's true.
Do you think?
Yeah, no, I agree completely.
Would you give any other advice for that particular question, or things or ideas that could be successful?
I think you've got good ones there.
I don't really think I could say anything better than that.
Definitely connect it to a job or a hobby or study, because they are the times that people ask for your opinion about things.
Yeah.
I guess you could talk about your partner if your partner asked for your opinion as well.
Oh, that's good.
Right, parenting.
Yeah, parenting.
So if you don't work but you're a parent, I think you know behavioural problems with kids.
That would be another good one.
I mean...
Again, once you start doing these part twos, I always think it's really good to have some go-to topics which you can pull out again and again, and again.
Which would kind of fit lots of different questions, yeah?
Yes.
One story that can be sort of molded to different questions.
Exactly.
So of the 50 topics you know, you can maybe talk about your hobby of sport for five of them, for example,
You know, that's also really useful when you've got to describe people.
Right.
I think everybody, every IELTS test taker, should have one famous person that they could talk about, that they can talk about.
And one sort of like family member that they could talk about.
And if you can get a famous person who's also runs their own business, you're going to cover every option there, because it's often talk about a business person or a sports person or a famous person.
So if you've got a famous sports person with a business, like David Beckham.
It's easy.
Yeah, exactly.
Okay.
So that was the first question that I've seen online, which was new for me.
Second question, Nick, is this one.
It's a good invention, which has made a positive change.
Yeah.
Now, I don't know.
What do you think about this question?
I think that's a hard one, to be honest.
I do as well.
What makes this difficult?
Again, it's not vague, but it is vague in a way, because an invention could be anything, really couldn't it?
Exactly.
Yeah.
And I think what makes it trickier than usual is that this idea not just talk about an invention that has impressed you or something.
It's this talk about a good invention which made a positive change.
So you know if a lot of IELTS questions, if they ask you to describe like an electronic gadget or something, 99 of students they always go to the internet or smartphones.
Do you think you could talk about those for this question?
I think you could if you can spin it in the right way.
Right.
Yeah.
So if you could focus on how the internet or how smartphones have actually benefited us, you definitely could.
Sometimes I feel like though, that with the internet or smartphones, because we've all got them and we all know what they do, I actually think they're quite difficult to talk about.
Mm-hmm.
Because you end up sounding a bit silly in a way.
And the smartphone have got apps.
I don't know if you know what an app is.
We all know what an app is.
We all know what the internet does.
If we didn't choose the internet or smartphones, then I guess, again...
You could.
I mean, if you were a doctor.
Something medical, yeah, would be really good here. something medical would be great, right?
Whether or not that's like artificial limbs or... The defibrillator or something like that.
Right, exactly.
So again, can you spin this to your own personal knowledge, right?
Are you an IT specialist?
Then you could talk about the internet, I guess.
I would say...
If you're not sure, the easiest option is always the best, right?
So if you can't think of anything, go for the internet or smartphone.
I actually, though, when I hear the word invention, my brain always goes back quite far.
So I would consider maybe talking about a really old invention.
Mm-hmm.
I mean, you could go all the way back to the wheel if you really wanted to.
Running water, irrigation systems.
Yes.
But, you know, that allowed that lead on to agriculture.
A lot of good chance for vocabulary there, actually.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
You know, without the wheel, we couldn't transport things.
There was no, yeah, there was no ability to aggregate.
I mean, loads of stuff.
You could also talk about the light bulb or the printing press.
I mean, I'm thinking sort of like a real historic, maybe something you might have studied at school.
Car.
Oh, a car would be a good one.
Yeah.
You know, and again I would say, a good way of tackling this question would be life before and life after.
Definitely.
Mm-hmm.
So, you know, before the invention of the internet, it was impossible to find information.
We had even finding a telephone number.
Involved a 700 page book delivered to your house every two years.
Good opportunity for past perfect as well, if you do that before and after.
Give an example, Nick.
Brilliant.
Well, you're going to be using past perfect, aren't you?
Because you're going to say, before the wheel had been invented, people had had to transport things.
You could even maybe use third conditional there.
If the wheel hadn't been invented, we would still be living in blah, blah, blah, blah.
Oh my God, that's a mixed conditional, Nick.
Ding, ding, ding!
Bad nine grammar.
Yes.
What would have happened?
What would life be like if this hadn't been invented?
Or what was it like before it was invented?
I think making those comparisons...
Is what's really going to be nice.
Is what's going to help.
Because if you only sort of talk about what's positive, you're going to end up saying well, you can do this, you can do this, you can do that.
It's kind of similar sentence structures.
Yeah.
But outlining what life was like before.
In the same way then, I also think like household appliances actually.
Mm-hmm, especially if you're a woman, we can describe.
You know what life was like before the invention of the washing machine, especially if you're an academic, an academic student.
You remember that writing task.
One question with the amount of hours that were spent hoovering, washing?
Yeah.
So, yeah.
So, I mean, I think you're right, Nick.
I do think.
I mean, this is the sort of a question which is actually, you know, if someone says to you what do you think is the best ever invention?
That is actually an interesting question.
But it's one that requires quite a lot of thought.
Yeah.
And not in a minute in an exam condition.
So I think, as you said, you could use the internet and smartphones if you put the right spin on it.
But even if you do, I do think, what were we doing before this invention?
What are we doing now?
That will that will be the way to show the positive change, I think.
Great.
OK, let's have a look then at the third question, which is a neighbor, you know.
Who is interesting?
I mean, Christ, if you know a neighbor, that would be one thing.
A neighbor who is interesting.
Come on.
So definitely this is the opposite of the first two questions.
This is not vague, is it?
Nope.
This is super specific.
Although I guess interesting is kind of vague, isn't it?
Right.
I think that's true.
Explain what you mean by that, Nick.
I think you're right.
Interesting doesn't really mean anything, does it?
Well, no.
It doesn't mean that they're funny.
Or it just means... There's something, anything about them that you like, basically, isn't it?
Yeah, or even is a bit weird.
Or even a bit weird.
Yeah, that's true.
Because in English, you can go, oh, that's interesting in a weird way.
Now I just think the problem with this question is that some people may just look at that card and think I live in a flat.
I moved there three weeks ago.
I don't know any of my neighbours.
If that happened to you, if you just think I don't know any of my neighbors, what on earth can you do?
Well, first of all, you could talk about a neighbor who you remember, from childhood, I guess, because that's what I would probably do.
Because I only know a couple of my neighbors in my flat.
Yeah.
And I think people today don't really know their neighbors that well.
Absolutely.
And, you know, I think especially if you said, you know what, this is really interesting.
I live in a flat and I only know one other person in my block.
However, when I was a child, we had a really interesting.
You know, you don't have to pretend that the neighbors now you can tell the examiner.
I had one as a kid.
That's absolutely fine.
Mm hmm.
Yeah.
I guess another thing you could do is talk about just a person and pretend that they're your neighbor.
Yeah.
That would be my advice.
Right.
So absolutely.
So, you know, a neighbor, it could be a young person, couldn't it?
An old person.
I mean, it literally could be anybody.
So the examiner is not going to know if the person you're describing really lives next door to you or not.
Right.
So you could choose a work colleague, a classmate.
Even a sort of friend.
I mean, I guess you don't want to choose a best friend because that would be a bit weird, right?
Yeah.
Because you tend not to be best friends with your neighbours.
That's true.
I would just think do you know somebody through work or socially, or through a sports club or something, who you've spoken to quite a few times, who is interesting?
They're not your friend.
Mm-hmm.
But there's somebody, you know, just pretend that that person lives next door to you.
Yeah.
And then focus on what makes them interesting less than the fact that you're, then they're your neighbor.
Would you recommend that a student completely invented a person like they just invented a neighbor?
Yeah, I agree.
Why is that?
Because you're not going to be able to go into any detail.
You're going to be thinking on the spot, your fluency is going to suffer and it's just, it's not going to be a good part two.
Yeah.
I mean talking in a second language continuously for two minutes is already a difficult thing to do.
Lying for two minutes in a second language is almost impossible.
Yeah, making it too difficult for yourself.
You're making it way, way, way too difficult.
So yes, if you don't have a neighbour who you know is interesting...
Think about somebody else you've met at some point in your life and just pretend they're next to you, but still be thinking of a real person.
I really think that is important.
Okay, so my advice for that would be think of a real person.
I'll agree with Nick, a neighbour at any time of your life would be brilliant.
And if you don't have that, someone you work with maybe, or someone you studied with who was genuinely interesting and you could just talk about them okay, next one nick is talk about a time again this is very specific when you were stuck in a traffic jam.
It sounds like the story of my life, does it?
Yeah well, my worry with this question is have you ever, have you ever heard anybody telling interesting story about being stuck in a traffic jam?
I guess not, actually.
I mean, I think even if you've got a time you were really stuck in a traffic jam, there's not much to say beyond the fact that we were stuck for two hours, four hours.
I don't know however long you were stuck for.
If you only focus on the actual traffic jam.
Yeah, yeah.
So this may be a question where the bullet points might help you.
That's true, actually.
Yes, that is right.
But I would say I would be focusing on this less about the traffic jam, which is, you know, going to be the center point of the story, but a short part of the story, and more about the details.
So if you were going to tell a story of being stuck in traffic, Nick.
Mm hmm.
Being stuck in traffic is probably not the highlight.
What information would I need to know to make that story interesting or at least have some context?
Well, I guess you definitely want to add some background information.
So where you were going, why you were going there, what time you were going there maybe.
Yes.
Probably you want to focus on I think you'd want to choose a particularly bad traffic jam.
Yeah.
And then talk about the reason why there was a traffic jam.
Yes.
Why were you stuck in traffic?
What caused this horrific traffic jam?
Were you just stupid and got up at traveled at the wrong time of day?
Was there an accident?
Was there something else?
Yes.
Also you might want to think about.
I always like to think when you're giving background details.
The opposite side of the story is the consequences.
So what were the consequences of you being stuck in the traffic jam?
Did you miss an important meeting?
Was it difficult?
Yeah, the more details you can give the better.
Regarding your journey yeah, were you, and who was with you?
That would be another one right.
Were you on your own in the car?
Was there a kid screaming in the background?
Did everybody need the toilet?
That's the worst thing about a traffic jam.
Add details.
Yeah, Can you think of a time when you were really stuck in a bad traffic jam?
I can think of at least three that I could talk about.
Can you?
I've just been thinking about it now and I've got three really bad traffic jams that I was in that I could talk about.
I've got a vision of being on a motorway once and being stuck.
But you don't drive that often, do you?
No, I don't, Nick.
And do you know what's really frustrating is I'm still waiting for the e-car.
I've hired this, leased this electric car.
And they emailed me yesterday, or no, this morning at 9am to say it would be here on Thursday.
And I was absolutely over the moon.
And then they emailed back at 11 and said, oh, no, sorry, it's a mistake.
It's not coming on Thursday.
But I don't drive, actually.
You're absolutely right.
I think when you're the driver, you seem to I would say you probably remember it more.
Right.
Than if you're the passenger, because at least if you're a passenger you can do something to pass the time.
That is very true.
And when you're driving, you sometimes can't really do that.
You're just sat behind the wheel getting more and more angry.
That's really true.
Right.
So it's not like you, because you're the one who needs to keep looking out the front for when the traffic starts moving again.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I guess if you're stuck in traffic in a bus, that might be.
More memorable than in a car.
That would be the one.
I once got stuck on Nevsky Prosket for about an hour and a half in a bus.
I could talk about that.
Terrible.
I hate stuff like that.
It was the slowest bus in the whole of the world.
Number 22.
Yeah.
I mean, I think this is tricky because...
I mean, I just don't know.
Would every student?
Would you be guaranteed that everybody had been stuck in a traffic jam at one point in their life?
No, you wouldn't, I don't think.
No, that's what I struggle with, with this question.
Hmm.
I can imagine there are some students, maybe young students who don't remember, or if you live on I know a quiet island like Cape Verde, maybe there is literally no traffic chance.
All right.
Let's have a look then, at the final question, which is a special talk about a special day out that you had which was inexpensive.
They keep adding these extra, like these relative clauses, don't they?
A neighbour, who is interesting.
A special day out, which was inexpensive.
I mean...
I just don't I personally don't agree with these little qualifications.
I think it's putting a lot of pressure on a student to come up with a very specific idea in a short time.
Maybe that's why they're doing it.
Maybe.
Maybe they're really trying to test you.
My question would be that.
I mean, I mean, I guess the word inexpensive depends on who.
You are right, my inexpensive may be different to your inexpensive.
But my questions would be nick, a day out means you are outside your house, so that's important, right?
So it can't be a day where you yeah, so what are inexpensive days out?
Um, i guess trips to the countryside, Right?
That's what I thought.
I mean, the great outdoors is free, isn't it?
Right.
So if you've been out, that would definitely be inexpensive.
The only other thing I could think of was maybe sort of like a day that you spent with a friend.
So it's more about or a relative.
So it's more about the company.
Yeah.
That's good.
Than the actual place that you went to.
Again, you might be able to connect this back to a hobby.
If you like fishing, for example, you could talk about a day out where you went fishing, or something like that.
Went for a round of golf.
Well, yeah, if you went with a friend who had a card so you didn't have to pay your green fee.
I don't know.
Some golf courses are pretty cheap.
You can go for a day out for a tenner or something like that.
Yeah, be able to actually like a little nine hole course.
I mean, i guess the point is is that i would focus more on the day out, a special day out.
Um, but do try to talk about the cost at some point, because i think a lot of students may you have to skim over the cost.
Yeah, i think the cost part of this is quite important, Yeah.
So don't just ignore that.
So even if it's just like, you know, and the great thing was after eating lobster, my friend paid.
So then it was inexpensive for you.
But at least you've acknowledged the fact that the question asked you about the cost.
Right.
So definitely, definitely do the cost.
Yeah.
Okay.
So, Nick, shall we each do one of these as a little... Yeah, let's do a little practice.
...model.
So, shall we choose one for each other?
Okay.
I'm going to choose for you, Nick.
I'm going to do the good invention.
Oh for me, really no.
Okay, you want another one?
That's the only one i think i would struggle with actually.
Okay, all right, then do do the neighbor who you know who is interesting.
Okay, i'll try.
It's not an easy one, that one, but I have a couple of ideas for that one that I could talk about.
Okay.
And what one will I do?
Can you do the last one?
An inexpensive day out.
Oh God.
Well done.
Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Or do you want a different one?
No, no, no.
I'll do that.
A special day out, which was inexpensive.
I can do that.
Yeah.
Okay.
Are you going to give us a minute to prepare?
So we will take a minute to prepare.
If you are listening at home, you could take a minute to prepare and you could do these as well.
Yeah.
And then we'll come back and we'll just give you a little model.
Mm-hmm.
All right, Nick, you ready?
I'm ready.
Okay, I think I'm ready as well.
Okay, I'm going to time you then for the first one.
I'm going to give you up to two minutes and I will tell you when you can stop talking.
All right, your time to speak begins now.
All right.
So I think the day I remember first when someone talks about a special day out that was inexpensive was the day when one of my students his name was Vadim invited me to go to the dacha his dacha for the day.
Now, if you don't know what a dacha is, it's like I guess it's a small house in the country usually.
But Vadim's house was not a small house in the country.
It was a huge house in the country, which was next to this amazing lake and a forest.
And I think that's what made the day so special for me. was that it was, I think it was August.
It was definitely summer and the weather was really brilliant.
And we spent the whole day outside.
So I think once we got there, we had a bite to eat, like a bit of lunch.
And then, as I said, it was right next to the lake.
So the first thing we did was we went down and they had this little rowing boat there, so we went out for a little row on the lake and then we came back um, and then we had uh, there was a chance to swim.
So you had to like, wade out through the reeds and the lake was absolutely amazing.
It was really big, but there was like a small island in the middle of the lake, so we sort of swam across to that island and It wasn't far.
It's probably only like 200 or 300 meters.
But it felt really exciting to be in the middle of this lake.
And then we swam back.
And then after we got dried, we went into the forest, which was the other side of the house.
It's incredible.
And we picked wild mushrooms.
I don't know if you've ever picked wild mushrooms before, but as an English person it always seems quite frightening, because I just assume that they're all poisonous.
But Vadim and his wife knew exactly which ones we could eat and which ones we couldn't eat.
So we picked this particular type of mushroom, which I think in English they're called chanterelles, but they're these amazing mushrooms.
They're kind of orange and quite small.
And we found this huge patch of ground that had Is that it?
Two minutes.
Wow, that was so quick.
I mean, it was obvious it was all free because I didn't spend anything.
So I was swimming outside, but I should have maybe come back to the free part at some point.
Oh, yeah.
Well, talking about the outdoors is good.
Talking about the outdoors.
I think it's very obviously implied that it's inexpensive because you go into a friend's house, isn't it?
Yeah, and I was going to, well, the bit I wanted to say was we cooked those mushrooms for dinner.
So we didn't even spend money on dinner.
Okay, I see what you were doing there, yeah.
Yeah.
But anyway, that's a good example.
Too much background, not enough details.
So I could sharpen up my part two.
I haven't done one for a while.
Nick, are you ready for yours?
Yes.
I want to hear about this neighbor.
All right.
So again, you've got one to two minutes.
Don't worry if I interrupt you.
Can you start speaking now, please?
I'm going to turn this question on its head a little bit, because the interesting neighbor that I know is my family.
Because we, I'm 36 years old now, and I feel incredibly sorry for my neighbors.
Because they had us as neighbors when I was a child.
Because me and my brothers, me and my two brothers, were the neighbors from hell.
Because we just constantly caused problems.
And, you know, this was the early 90s, so there was no sort of distractions, really.
And we used to play in the garden all the time.
We used to play football in the garden all the time.
And the ball constantly went over the fence into the neighbor's garden.
And obviously we would go around and knock and ask for it back.
And sometimes we would sneak into the garden and just take it if we knew they were out.
And sometimes, for some reason, we would stand in the garden and we would shout 1, 2, 3...
Russell!
And try and get the neighbor's son, who was about eight years older than us, to come to the window and go down into the garden and throw the ball back.
The fence was broken numerous times.
And they made my parents pay for it, obviously.
Every time it got broke, they were not happy about it.
We had, I think, Stuart and Amanda, I want to say on the left-hand side, and they had two kids who were older than us.
And they were the ones that I think were annoyed by us the most, because they actually moved when we were about 12, when I was about 12 or 13.
But I think it's because the kids had grown up and they wanted a smaller place, not because we had.
They didn't move because of us, I hope.
The new neighbors were really unfriendly though.
And then on the other side we had a really lovely old couple called Roy and Louise, who sometimes gave us Christmas.
Thank you.
Thank you, Nick.
Neighbors from hell.
I love what you did there.
You were the neighbor.
It's interesting.
I mean, that's just a brilliant way nick, of showing people you know, as long as you're talking about neighbors which is what you were still talking about your neighbors right on both sides, you know, knocking down the fences.
I loved on the other side, on the left side brilliant, That was fast two minutes, wasn't it.
Felt fast.
Well, this is what I'm thinking.
Like I haven't done a two-minute.
I haven't demonstrated a two-minute talk for I don't It's been about a year since we did it on the podcast, I think.
Yeah.
Maybe we should do a few more, actually.
So, yeah.
How did you get on?
I mean, do you find it easy to speak for two minutes?
Do you find that the time drags?
Do you find that it goes quickly?
I would say, if you are a very high level speaker like Nick and I, you may find you want to cut down on those extra details because naturally you're going to speak for longer than two minutes.
Whereas if...
You're a weaker student.
Those details are the things which help build you up to that two minutes.
But definitely, as you can see from Nick and I there, practice.
It makes perfect.
I was doing so many demonstrations in class at some point.
I wouldn't even use an egg timer when I use my eggs, because I always knew exactly what two minutes was, and then four minutes was just double.
But yeah, I've definitely lost that skill.
Okay, so they are five of the current part two questions.
If you found that useful, we could come back and do another five another week.
I enjoyed that, Nick, actually, that episode.
Yeah, it was.
But in any case...
Whatever happens, please come back next week where we will have another IELTS lessons for you.
Take care until then.
Bye bye.
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